ClamWin is not a real-time scanner that scans files when they are put on your computer. It is an on-demand scanner that scans files when you demand it (manually) or when you have a scheduled scan. ClamWin makes a good "backup" scanner that will give you some extra protection.

If you are on the world wide web a lot, you should have a real-time scanner to find malware files if they get on your computer. Some good free real-time AV scanners are Avast, AntiVir, Microsoft Security Essentials, and PC Tools. Avast is the most complete, AntiVir has the best heuristics, Security Essentials is the easiest to use, and PC Tools is also a simple and easy antivirus program.

The small and free Clam Sentinel program lets you use ClamWin as a real-time scanner, and it also has its own heuristics that help it find many malware files for which ClamWin does not yet have a signature.

Regards,

Thanks

SassyAtasha

Joined: 30 Mar 2011

Posts: 1

Location: Baltimore, Maryland

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 1:45 am

This forum is great. I learned a lot of things on how to protect my PC. Thank you so much for giving advise, application that is helpful to us.

Free AV programs inferior?

SoniaP

Joined: 02 Apr 2012

Posts: 2

Location: South Africa

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:26 pm

I have always been under the impression that unless you pay for AV software, you cannot expect to be fully protected. Seems I was sorely mistaken...any takings form forum members on this? I'd like response from members who only use free software, and earn a living from their computer. I saw somewhere that free options maybe not best for people on the internet all day?

traducere engleza

Joined: 09 Apr 2012

Posts: 1

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 7:06 am

much better forums. is it possible a romanian one??thnx admin

wowsold24

Joined: 15 Apr 2012

Posts: 1

Location: Indonesia

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 3:02 am

thank you for this forum, lots of new things to be had, and lots of help, may continue to develop innovative and successful

DFR13

Joined: 15 Apr 2012

Posts: 2

Location: USA

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 5:33 pm

What do I do when a virus is detected in a large .cab file? Check it with another scanner and if needed dump it?
Anyway file, Adobe's Data1.cab, from the adobe forum site shows that the suspect file is reader_sl.exe and the two sites recommended Jotti's an Virus Total show it gives a positive only with ClamWin so question settled. Thanks for the info to solve my own problems.

Hello

mobear410

Joined: 09 Jul 2012

Posts: 1

Location: Oregon USA

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:18 pm

I'm new here but I've been using computers and AntiVirus / AntiMalware since the very beginning which was back when DOS 3.0 had just been released. I've tested a huge number of programs and I am so very glad I found ClamWin Forum. Guitar Bob sure seems to know what he is talking about & has some really great advice. Way to go Bob I truly like your style of answers (at least the couple of dozen that I've reviewed so far). I ran a double check on a couple of suspected files and out of all the AntiVirus programs it was found to have W32/Malware!1d0f but I still think that is another false positive. Got any suggestions as to how I can truly tell & if it is infected ... Can I clean it Keep up the great work Bob. I will not only be back but I'm going to spread the word.

Thom aka mobear410

GuitarBob

Joined: 09 Jul 2006

Posts: 4316

Location: USA

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:37 pm

Welcome, Thom. ClamWin doesn't do any cleaning. When it finds a malware/virus file, it wil either Report, Remove, or Quarantine, according to the infected file option in the General Preferences. The default is Report. You should never select Remove, in case of false positives. Quarantine is a safe option because you can restore quarantined files with the ClamWin Browser program (accessable via All Programs, ClamWin, Quarantine Browser or via QRecover.exe from the ClamWin\bin directory. Before restoring, you should whitelist a false positive in the ClamWin Preferences/Configuration, Filters, Exclude Matching Filenames. Report all false positives and undetected viruses/malware to Clam AV at http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/sendvirus/ on the web. Clam AV furnishes its scanning engine and virus signatures to ClamWin.

As you will find at many places here on the forum, you can/should verify files by uploading them to Jotti or VirusTotal on the web. If multiple AVs detect an infection, it is probably true. If not many AVs detect anything, it is probably a false positive. You also have to look at the date the file was first seen. Initially, not many AVs will detect a brand new virus/malware. After a few days, more should detect it, and after a week or two, the majority should detect it if infected. Pick out several AVs that you admire, and if a couple of them spot an infection, it's probably real. Be careful in selecting AVs though, because several of them license their scanning engine out to other AVs, so you could be looking at only one or two engines. These AVs do some licensing: Avast, Bitdefender, Ikarus, Kaspersky, Virus Buster, so if you select from them, there will not be any duplicates. You can also select from the large/widely-used AVs because they are low on false positives and have to get a detection right. These AVs are all widely-used: AVG, Avira Antivir, Avast, NOD32, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, and Trend Micro and you will not see much duplication there.

Regards,

Regards,

mon62012

Joined: 30 Jul 2012

Posts: 1

Location: Las Vegas

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:06 am

My sentiments are the same with what Thom said. I'm also grateful for the ClamWin software even though this is the first time I've heard of it. I'm using the more popular one but I will definitely give ClamWin a try and I'm looking forward to share the news with my fellow clients. Again, thank you so much for helping us out and more power to your software. Take care.

Webpage not found for reporting viruses or false positives.

eveningdarkstar

Joined: 04 Aug 2014

Posts: 4

Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 4:30 pm

Quote:

Report all false positives and undetected viruses/malware to Clam AV at http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/sendvirus/ on the web.

This webpage is reporting a 404 Error - Not Found... Someone want to give an updated URL for where to report viruses or false positives? Or fix the web server?

Thanks for using ClamWin! Remember that the developers recommend you use it along with a real-time, on-access scanner. It only scans on-demand--when you tell it to scan or per any scheduled scans you set up. There are several good free real-time, on-access scanners. The easiest one to use is Microsoft Windows Defender (or Microsoft Security Essentials for older computers).

Regards,

Newbie

martinjennifer

Joined: 19 Jul 2016

Posts: 5

Location: India

Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2016 10:48 am

I am new to this forum and joined it to gain knowledge of antivirus software.

GuitarBob

Joined: 09 Jul 2006

Posts: 4316

Location: USA

Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:09 pm

Welcome! The forum is for users of the ClamWin open source antivirus program. There will not be much information about other AV programs. ClamWin uses the scan engine and virus signatures provided by the open source Clam AV project (now owned by Cisco).